I have a seemingly irrational dislike of the new 'Stars Of the Week' system at dds primary

[PoorOldEnid]

and I wonder why

Is it because of an intrinsic dislike of anything 'happy clappy' or holiday camp-ish

or ARE there any downsides to them

Teachers pick one or two children a week to be the STARS - the reason is put on a board in the reception area of teh school eg " Enids dd is a STAR because she is reliable and helpful to others"

The pre prep at my DC's school has this.

When DD was in reception, she was one of the children to get a merit award, very early in the year.

Assuming as you do, when you clearly have a genius as your PFB child, I bent down to get a good look at what the award was for, all sorts of possibilities of academic excellence running through my head

Imagine how proud I was to see that her award was for 'setting a good example to others by ALWAYS eating all of her lunch' PMSL!

Bubble... pricked... me... non...

They used to do star of the week at my dc's school - ds hated it as some children seemed to get it several times (it involved a special certificate, sitting on a special cushion at circle time and having a soft toy sit on your desk for a week) and he only got it once.
He had no idea what it was awarded for - but I know the time he got it was because I'd found out a meaning of an obscure Scots word for him. So relaly I should have been Star that week!
they do still give out certificates at assembly for good work / behaviour / being kind etc and these seem more evenly distributed.

Yes we had this at DDs old school. Each week someone would get star of the week and yes it was almost done in rotation. I told DD this fairly early on so she would simply say to me 'is it my turn this week'! Then in assembly everyone gets a star for doing something like holding a door open or saying 'hello'. You know all those things that are actually normal behaviour. I kid you not at the end of assembly virtually every child would be standing up! However I do think stars and the like are good but I prefer them to be individual i.e. the child has their own chart in their draw and the teacher gives them specific stars for doing things well etc. I think this makes it better for the child as it personal to them. To get over an problems I used to award my DD 'worker of the week' every week because she is my little star.

oh they have a lottery thing at our school as well

I can't remember why they get tickets something about house points?

I love your idea of normal behaviour anmhe. If my dd opened a door and said hello, I'd think that was normal. If my ds did it I'd rigid with shock. I'd be interrogating the teachers - how did you get him to do that? Do you think he'll do it again one day?

Interesting for me that with well-behaved 'normal' dd I hated stars and stickers but with ds I secretly like them.

Oh. I 'contributed' to this thread under false pretences. Ours is star of the day

In yr5 DS#1 had a star of the week. I think that each child had a pop at it. They ended up with a little booklet with their photo on the front and every child and the teachers and TAs used one page to write something nice about them and maybe do a little doodle or a picture. Most of them were somewhat repetitive - X is really kind, X is really nice etc, and only his mates had anything genuine to say (X is a good friend. He has a really cool Plan B deck and is really good at ollies - that sort of thing).